{"id":657559,"date":"2025-07-31T13:37:30","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T17:37:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/?p=657559"},"modified":"2025-07-31T13:39:32","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T17:39:32","slug":"richard-kone-leciester-city-transfer-rivals","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2025\/07\/31\/richard-kone-leciester-city-transfer-rivals\/","title":{"rendered":"Leicester City Face Competition for Attacker Who \u2018Has Got Everything\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Following the departure of Jamie Vardy, Leicester City&#8217;s hunt for their next striker continues. Despite being 38 years old, the Englishman still <\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">scored<\/span><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\"> nine league goals last season and played over 2,800 minutes. Furthermore, with Patson Daka not being reliable enough, City appear to be looking for their next talisman.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Fellow Championship Club Bid For Leicester City Target<\/span><\/strong><\/h2>\n<h3><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Richard Kone: On The Move?<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">As reported by<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/BBCSportWales\/status\/1950861853384753423\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0BBC Sport Wales<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">, Swansea have reportedly offered \u00a34.5M for Richard Kone, after the Wycombe star found the net 19 times in all competitions last season. The striker&#8217;s goals led his side to a fifth-place finish.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">In addition to the Welsh side&#8217;s pursuit, multiple other Championship clubs are also displaying interest. Ipswich, Norwich and Middlesbrough join Leicester City in the race for the Ivorian talent, who recently turned 22 years old. He won both the League One<\/span><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/www.efl.com\/news\/2025\/april\/27\/live--efl-awards-2025\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0Player Of The Season<\/span><\/a><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0and Young Player of the Season, indicating why many clubs are interested.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Read More:<\/span><\/strong><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2025\/07\/30\/conor-coady-wrexham-transfer\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0Leicester City Player With \u2018Commitment Questioned\u2019 Linked With Move to Championship Rivals<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">If the Foxes were able to win the battle and secure the forward&#8217;s services, it would be the club&#8217;s first arrival of the summer. With Marti Cifuentes arriving just over two weeks ago, it comes as no surprise that the Foxes haven&#8217;t been active. Furthermore, with many players on the verge of leaving, finding new options isn&#8217;t necessarily the priority.<\/span><\/p>\n<h3><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">How Does This Affect Leicester City<\/span><\/strong><\/h3>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Losing out on a talent like Kone would be underwhelming given Marti Cifuentes&#8217; current striker options. Daka managed just one goal last season, whilst Jordan Ayew continues to age, and Jake Evans remains inexperienced. Furthermore, the Spanish manager has also made clear that he needs a centre-forward who can drop between the lines and link play.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><strong><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Read More:<\/span><\/strong><a class=\"editor-rtfLink\" href=\"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/2025\/07\/30\/marti-cifuentes-tactics-leicester\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_self\"><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">\u00a0How Marti Cifuentes Has Developed A Clear Identity After Just Three Friendlies<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Kone offers a major upturn, with a low fee and high potential. He has been previously described as someone who &#8220;<a  href=\"https:\/\/footballleagueworld.co.uk\/wycombe-wanderers-joe-jacobson-makes-10m-richard-kone-claim\/\" target=\"_blank\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">has got everything.<\/a>&#8220;<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">He is physical and up to the task of occupying centre-halves, but also willing to get on the ball both back to goal and out wide. In front of the goal, he has been prolific, especially considering his lack of experience within the game. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">Although it isn&#8217;t clear whether he is Championship-ready, taking League One by storm last season provides a positive indication.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-preserver-spaces=\"true\">With the Foxes needing to offload players before being active with incomings, they could miss out on a real star. The likes of Bilal El Khannouss, Wilfred Ndidi and Mads Hermansen remain targets for a plethora of clubs, and their departures will only help City&#8217;s pursuit of a new number nine.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Following the departure of Jamie Vardy, Leicester City&#8217;s hunt for their next striker continues. Despite being 38 years old, the Englishman still scored nine league goals last season and played over 2,800 minutes. Furthermore, with Patson Daka not being reliable enough, City appear to be looking for their next talisman.\u00a0 Fellow Championship Club Bid For [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5391,"featured_media":631917,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"no","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[15,33,32],"tags":[9354,32514],"class_list":["post-657559","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-leicester-city","category-championship","category-league-football","tag-leicester-city-transfer-rumours","tag-richard-kone"],"modified_by":"Ricky Carroll, Editor","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657559","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5391"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=657559"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657559\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":657574,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/657559\/revisions\/657574"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/631917"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=657559"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=657559"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/football\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=657559"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}